Psychology of Learning

Module 07: Operant Conditioning 2

Key Terms

Agoraphobia: An anxiety disorder characterized by fear and avoidance of places or situations where escape might be difficult or help unavailable if panic symptoms occur; often develops through classical conditioning (places associated with panic) and operant conditioning (avoidance negatively reinforced by anxiety reduction).

Amount of Reinforcement: The quantity of reinforcer delivered following a response; larger amounts produce stronger responding and higher response rates.

Automatic Reinforcement: Reinforcement that occurs when the behavior itself is the reinforcing stimulus.

Avoidance Learning: The demonstration of learned avoidance behaviors in response to people, environments, or situations that induce fear or anxiety; organisms learn to avoid stimuli that predict aversive outcomes.

Backward Chaining: A technique for conditioning the acquisition of a series of behaviors that must be demonstrated in a particular sequence, where behaviors are learned starting with the last behavior in the series; believed to be easier for learning long sequences because the newest behavior is demonstrated first.

Behavioral Decelerators: Techniques designed to slow, reduce, or eliminate problematic behaviors; include positive punishment, negative punishment, extinction, and other approaches used in behavior therapy.

Behavioral Economics: A field that uses principles from both behavioral psychology and economics to predict people’s choices and behaviors; combines microeconomics (concerned with consumer behaviors) and operant conditioning (concerned with individual behaviors of organisms).

Behavior Modification: The systematic application of learning principles to change maladaptive behaviors; uses operant conditioning techniques to increase desirable behaviors and decrease undesirable ones.

Chaining: An extension of behavioral shaping involving the reinforcement of successive elements of a chain of behaviors; focuses on reinforcing series of behaviors that must be executed in specific order.

Contingency: The idea that effective consequences must reliably follow a target behavior each time the behavior is demonstrated; inconsistent consequences produce weaker behavior change.

Cost-Benefit: The idea that effective consequences present benefits to the individual that outweigh the costs of demonstrating the target behavior; organisms perform behaviors only if costs incurred are smaller than reinforcement received.

Delay of Reinforcement: The amount of time between a response and its consequences; delayed reinforcement doesn’t influence behavior nearly as much as immediate reinforcement.

Drive Reduction Theory: A theory proposing that reinforcement occurs because stimuli reduce biological drives; problematic because some reinforcers (like temperature changes or arousal) don’t reduce drives.

Elastic Demand: Demand for a product that exhibits large changes as the price increases or decreases; occurs when close substitutes for a reinforcer are available.

Electrical Stimulation of the Brain (ESB): Direct stimulation of brain reward centers that produces powerful reinforcing effects without satisfying any biological need; associated with reward deficiency syndrome.

Fixed Action Pattern: An instinctual series of behaviors that are demonstrated in their entirety in response to some environmental stimulus; these patterns are innate, species-specific, and triggered by specific releaser stimuli.

Forward Chaining: A technique for conditioning the acquisition of a series of behaviors that must be demonstrated in a particular sequence, where behaviors are learned starting with the first behavior in the series; reinforcement follows successful demonstration of behaviors in proper sequence.

Immediacy: The idea that consequences that follow a target behavior immediately are more effective; delayed consequences have weakened effects on behavior.

Inelastic Demand: Demand for a product that shows relatively little change as the price increases or decreases; occurs when there are no close substitutes for a reinforcer available.

Instinctive Drift: Animals’ tendencies to engage in instinctual behaviors despite conditioning to learn incompatible behaviors; learned behaviors drift toward instinctual patterns.

Latent Learning: Learning that occurs without reinforcement but requires reinforcement for performance; demonstrates separation between learning and performance.

Law of Diminishing Marginal Value: The principle that each additional unit of a commodity provides less additional utility than the previous unit; explains why variety in choices can maximize total utility.

Level of Motivation: The degree of drive or need state affecting responding; satiated animals show minimal responding regardless of reinforcement schedule.

Maximum Utility Theory: The theory that, facing uncertainty, people behave or should behave as if they were maximizing the expectation of some utility function of the possible outcomes.

Mowrer’s Two-Factor Theory: An explanation of avoidance learning based on the idea that individuals first learn to fear a previously neutral stimulus through classical conditioning, then escape the stimulus to avoid feelings of fear; avoidance behaviors are maintained through negative reinforcement (removal of fear).

Need Reduction Theory: A theory proposing that reinforcement occurs because stimuli satisfy biological needs; problematic because some reinforcers (like saccharin) don’t satisfy any biological need.

Optimal Foraging: Behavior patterns in which animals make choices about prey selection or resource acquisition that maximize their net energy intake per unit time; predictions confirmed in studies of bluegill prey selection and dung fly behavior.

Optimization Theory: A theory of choice behavior stating that people tend to make decisions that maximize their satisfaction; suggests organisms approximate optimal solutions even without conscious calculation.

Premack Principle: The principle that higher probability behaviors can reinforce lower probability behaviors; activities can serve as reinforcers based on preference hierarchies.

Rate of Reinforcement: The frequency with which reinforcement is delivered; more frequent reinforcement produces faster responding than infrequent reinforcement.

Reinforcement Relativity: The concept that reinforcement value is relative rather than absolute; the same activity can function as a reinforcer or as a behavior to be reinforced depending on baseline probabilities.

Reinforcer Quality: The desirability of a reinforcer; animals respond fastest for high-quality reinforcers, with premium items producing higher response rates than less preferred alternatives.

Response Deprivation Theory: The theory that deprivation below baseline levels creates reinforcement potential; even low-probability behaviors can become reinforcers if access is restricted below normal levels.

Response Effort: The difficulty of the required response; animals prefer less effortful responses and will choose easier responses when two responses produce equal reinforcement.

Reward Deficiency Syndrome: A condition associated with reduced dopamine functioning in brain reward pathways; individuals may seek intense stimulation to compensate for diminished reward sensitivity.

Satiation: The idea that the effectiveness of a reinforcer will be reduced if the animal or individual’s appetite for the reinforcer has been met; related to the law of diminishing marginal value.